Monday, August 2, 2010

pushprinterconnections.exe Installs Old Printers

There is a bug with pushprinterconnections.exe when using group policy printer deployment to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 servers. It installs printers fine however it has an issue removing printers.

I experienced this bug performing the following steps:

1. Create a GPO called Printer Deployment and linking it to some workstations.

2. Adding pushprinterconnections.exe as a startup script to the Printer Deployment GPO.

3. Published printers to the computer policy under the Printer Deployment GPO in print management console on the print server.

4. Performed a group policy update on the target workstations and rebooted them to ensure they would install the new printers.

5. Removed all printers from the Printer Deployment GPO.

6. Performed a GP Update on all workstations and rebooted them to ensure they would remove all printers - they did.

7. Unlink the Printer Deployment GPO from the organisational unit containing the workstations.

8. Created a new GPO called New Printer Deployment GPO and linked it to the organisational unit containing the workstations.

9. Published just one printer in print management console to the new GPO.

10. Performed a gpupdate and rebooted all workstations under the New Printer Deployment GPO.

11. When the PC's rebooted they received all printers. They should only receive the one printer I published to New Printer Deployment GPO. There is no policy stating these extra printers should be reinstalled.

How do I resolve this error?

On XP and 2003 pushprinterconnections.exe stores the machine printer connection data in the following regkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PPC

Go to this reg key and delete all printer connection data.

Go to control panel --> printers and remove all printers

Also navigate to the following registry keys and clean up all printer connections that are no longer needed:

My organization is just switching to AD printer management, and I'm trying to use pushprinterconnections.exe to force printers to the xp workstations. I've added the executable to the workstation login property of the printer policy that I set up in my departmental AD container. The log files aren't showing up on the xp workstations which leads me to believe that the executable isn't making to the workstation. Possibly because the policy isn't being deployed. I have two policies in this workstation - a printer policy and a security policy. Could something in the security policy be preventing the printer policy from running? I'm brand new at this sort of stuff, so any help would be appreciated.